Posts

Books read
All that glitters by Holly Smale (4 stars)
Better left buried by Emma Haughton (3 stars)
Dog Ears by Anne Booth (4 stars)
Written in the stars by Ali Harris (4 stars)
The Start of me and you by Emery Lord (4 stars)
Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally (3 stars)
The rest of us just live here by Patrick Ness (4 stars)
Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson (4 stars)
Being a girl by Hayley Long (5 stars)
Demolition Dad by Phil Earle (5 stars)
It's all about love by Steve Camden (4 stars)
Lorali by Laura Dockrill (5 stars)
One by Sarah Crossan (5 stars)
Poppy in the Field by Mary Hooper (4 stars)
Read me like a book by Liz Kessler (4 stars)
House of Windows by Alexia Casale (4 stars)
One small act of kindness by Lucy Dillon (4 stars)

Book of the Month

This month it has to be One by Sarah Crossan. It was an extraordinary read which absolutely blew me away

I know nothing about this book. I want it purely because it is written by Louise.

Darkest Night by Will HillThe brave men and women of Department 19 have fought Dracula at
every turn, but now Zero Hour has passed and the ancient vampire is at
full strength.Inside Department 19, the Operators are exhausted and
fractured. Jamie, Larissa, Matt and Kate are each struggling with their
own demons. When the friends need each other most, they are further apart than ever.Outside the Department, the world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Violence and paranoia spread around the globe and, when it finally
comes, Dracula’s opening move is more vicious than anyone could have
imagined.A final battle looms between the forces of darkness and
the last, massed ranks of those who stand against it. A battle that
will define the future of humanity. A battle that simply cannot be lost...

One
Story, Two NarratorsSam
Hepburn
Until
I wrote If You Were Me I had never written a book using
dual narratives and it was an interesting challenge, made easier in a
way because the two main characters were so very different. Dan
Abbott is English, fourteen years old and the only child of a London
plumber . He is good hearted but a tiny bit dodgy – he has been
known to unlock stolen phones for an older friend. He doesn’t try
very hard at school and he has no idea what he wants to do with his
life. He has a happy, contented homelife, although things were
difficult when he was little and his father did a short prison
sentence for selling stolen goods.

Aliya is also fourteen but from
Afghanistan. Her doctor father was killed in a Taliban bomb explosion
and the shock and grief have plunged her mother into a deep
depression. She has a younger sister Mina, who is four and an older
brother Behrouz who worked as an interpreter for the British troops.
Aliya is clever and determined. She wor…

Fifteen-year-old
Pearl has lived her whole life protected within the small community at
Seed, where they worship Nature and idolise their leader, Papa S. When
some outsiders arrive, everything changes. Pearl experiences feelings
that she never knew existed and begins to realise that there is darkness
at the heart of Seed. A darkness from which she must escape, before
it's too late.

This isn't really a review of Seed. I
don't want to review this for fear of spoiling it. I came to this book
only knowing that it was about a girl who is part of a cult. I actually
think knowing only the very basic premise meant I was surprised all the
way through and needed to keep reading to find out what happened next.

This book is dark and creepy and with leave you chilled by the end. I found myself getting more and more uncomfortable as the story progressed. This book is a real example of how YA can really take you to that dark place and i…

Siblings Jonathan,
Holly and Davy have been struggling to survive since the death of their
mother, and are determined to avoid being taken into care. When the
family's wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to
visit her. Unable to speak or write, she gives Holly some photographs
that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their
problems. But they're not the only ones after the treasure...

This novel made me kick myself that I hadn't read any Sally Nichols before. I don't even know I haven't but I'm certainly going to make it a priority to read more in the future. This book was utterly charming throughout and I found myself absolutely captivated by the story of the siblings as they go on their treasure hunt to find their inheritance. The characterisation was stop and the story was so engrossing I read this is one very greedy sitting.

Louise and Erica have
been best friends since forever. They're closer than sisters and depend
on each other for almost everything. Just one problem: Erica has
superpowers.

When Erica isn't doing loop-the-loops in the sky or
burning things with her heat pulse powers, she needs Louise to hold her
non-super life together. After all, the girls still have homework,
parents and boys to figure out. But being a superhero's BFF is not easy,
especially as trouble has a way of seeking them out. Soon Louise
discovers that Erica might be able to survive explosions and fly faster
than a speeding bullet, but she can't win every fight by herself.